discovery, discovery, discovery, discovery - the most important part of any project
TRANSCRIPT
Discovery, Discovery, Discovery, Discovery!The Most Import Part Of Successful Projects
Agency and Community Success Manager At Pantheon Since 2014
Working in sales/marketing since 2005
Some things I enjoy, aside from tech:● Improv● Webcomics and Comic Books● Karaoke!!!
Hi, I’m Dwayne
@mcdwayne on Twitter
Slides at: mcdwayne.com
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Poll time
1. What are the business goals that the project is aiming to achieve?2. What business benefits will these goals deliver if achieved?3. What will be the consequences to the business (financial, reputation etc) if the project does not go ahead or fails to deliver the objectives?4. Are there any easy-to-implement alternatives to this project? Sometimes other solutions are available that do not require the cost implications of a
full-blown project.5. Are there any disadvantages to implementing this project? Staff redundancies might be an obvious one but there might be some that are less
obvious.6. Who is the main stakeholder, with ultimate responsibility for driving the project forward? It is important that someone senior takes ownership of a
project – that person should never be the project manager.7. Who is responsible for ensuring appropriate resources (time, people and money) are allocated to the project? This should be someone with the
authority to allocate whatever resources are required.8. Who will be responsible for deciding whether the project goes ahead or not after the initial investigations? This will often be a group of people,
sometimes with conflicting aims.9. Is the new project dependent on the successful delivery of a current project? If so, a full report on the status of the project already underway
should be obtained before committing to the new project.10. What are the success criteria that will indicate that the objectives have been met and the benefits delivered?11. Will new equipment/products be required to facilitate project delivery for example is new software needed?12. Will there be any necessary staff changes (redundancies or new hires)?13. Will existing staff require re-training for example to learn new business processes?14. Which individuals, teams or departments will be involved in the project?15. Who will be responsible for documenting the business requirements in detail?16. Who will determine interim and final deadlines? Projects where the marketing department, for example, decide on a deadline for an IT project
have a far less chance of success than when informed estimates are made about the resources required.17. How much contingency will be available in the budget?18. Who will be responsible for making the decisions to include or exclude requested changes once the project is underway?19. Will the project deliverables need to be tested and, if so, by whom?20. Who will provide the final approval of the project deliverable?
http://www.projectaccelerator.co.uk/20-questions-all-project-managers-should-ask/
ATIONS
Discovery Is The Most Import Part Of Successful Projects
Project: a planned piece of work that has a specific purpose (such as to find information or to make something new) and that usually requires a lot of time.
Word Root of projectThe Latin word jacere, meaning “to throw,” and its form jactus give us the root ject. Words from the Latin jacere have something to do with throwing. To reject is to throw back or away. To eject is to throw out. To inject is to throw one thing into another. To project is to throw forward onto a surface.
Lead
Qualified Lead
Proposal
DeliveryProject Funnel
Lead
Qualified Lead
Proposal
DeliveryProject Funnel
Qualify
Discovery
Procurement
Maintenance
A dream written down with a date becomes a goal.
A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan.
A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.
– Greg S. Reid
We Think In Stories
Story Spine
Story Spine
Once Upon A Time...
And Everyday...
But One Day...
And Because Of That...
And Because Of That...
And Because Of That...
Until Finally,
And Ever Since Then
1. What are the business goals that the project is aiming to achieve?2. What business benefits will these goals deliver if achieved?3. What will be the consequences to the business (financial, reputation etc) if the project does not go ahead or fails to deliver the objectives?4. Are there any easy-to-implement alternatives to this project? Sometimes other solutions are available that do not require the cost implications of a
full-blown project.5. Are there any disadvantages to implementing this project? Staff redundancies might be an obvious one but there might be some that are less
obvious.6. Who is the main stakeholder, with ultimate responsibility for driving the project forward? It is important that someone senior takes ownership of a
project – that person should never be the project manager.7. Who is responsible for ensuring appropriate resources (time, people and money) are allocated to the project? This should be someone with the
authority to allocate whatever resources are required.8. Who will be responsible for deciding whether the project goes ahead or not after the initial investigations? This will often be a group of people,
sometimes with conflicting aims.9. Is the new project dependent on the successful delivery of a current project? If so, a full report on the status of the project already underway
should be obtained before committing to the new project.10. What are the success criteria that will indicate that the objectives have been met and the benefits delivered?11. Will new equipment/products be required to facilitate project delivery for example is new software needed?12. Will there be any necessary staff changes (redundancies or new hires)?13. Will existing staff require re-training for example to learn new business processes?14. Which individuals, teams or departments will be involved in the project?15. Who will be responsible for documenting the business requirements in detail?16. Who will determine interim and final deadlines? Projects where the marketing department, for example, decide on a deadline for an IT project
have a far less chance of success than when informed estimates are made about the resources required.17. How much contingency will be available in the budget?18. Who will be responsible for making the decisions to include or exclude requested changes once the project is underway?19. Will the project deliverables need to be tested and, if so, by whom?20. Who will provide the final approval of the project deliverable?
http://www.projectaccelerator.co.uk/20-questions-all-project-managers-should-ask/
Ask open ended questions to guide the conversation
Are you the person who will sign off on this?Vs
Who signs off on this?
Do you want to have pictures on the top of the page?Vs
Where do you imagine seeing the pictures?
Focus on the ‘Why’
Listen 75%Talk 25%
Resist talking about yourself
Set up expectations with the client
Give them freedoms
Freedom to answer any question with ‘I don’t know’Freedom from reproach
Freedom to dream
Be Transparent
By end of Discovery you want have every question answered
1. What are the business goals that the project is aiming to achieve?2. What business benefits will these goals deliver if achieved?3. What will be the consequences to the business (financial, reputation etc) if the project does not go ahead or fails to deliver the objectives?4. Are there any easy-to-implement alternatives to this project? Sometimes other solutions are available that do not require the cost implications of a
full-blown project.5. Are there any disadvantages to implementing this project? Staff redundancies might be an obvious one but there might be some that are less
obvious.6. Who is the main stakeholder, with ultimate responsibility for driving the project forward? It is important that someone senior takes ownership of a
project – that person should never be the project manager.7. Who is responsible for ensuring appropriate resources (time, people and money) are allocated to the project? This should be someone with the
authority to allocate whatever resources are required.8. Who will be responsible for deciding whether the project goes ahead or not after the initial investigations? This will often be a group of people,
sometimes with conflicting aims.9. Is the new project dependent on the successful delivery of a current project? If so, a full report on the status of the project already underway
should be obtained before committing to the new project.10. What are the success criteria that will indicate that the objectives have been met and the benefits delivered?11. Will new equipment/products be required to facilitate project delivery for example is new software needed?12. Will there be any necessary staff changes (redundancies or new hires)?13. Will existing staff require re-training for example to learn new business processes?14. Which individuals, teams or departments will be involved in the project?15. Who will be responsible for documenting the business requirements in detail?16. Who will determine interim and final deadlines? Projects where the marketing department, for example, decide on a deadline for an IT project
have a far less chance of success than when informed estimates are made about the resources required.17. How much contingency will be available in the budget?18. Who will be responsible for making the decisions to include or exclude requested changes once the project is underway?19. Will the project deliverables need to be tested and, if so, by whom?20. Who will provide the final approval of the project deliverable?
http://www.projectaccelerator.co.uk/20-questions-all-project-managers-should-ask/
Agency and Community Success Manager At Pantheon Since 2014
Working in sales/marketing since 2005
Some things I enjoy, aside from tech:● Improv● Webcomics and Comic Books● Karaoke!!!
Hi, I’m Dwayne
@mcdwayne on Twitter
Slides at: mcdwayne.com
Pantheon.io
Thanks